Miller chooses Gebhardt to direct final Map My Summer short

George Miller has selected Amy Gebhardt to make a short film from the raw footage from the Map My Summer Screen Australia/YouTube promotion.

“I went with Amy’s film because I responded to [her short Into the Sun] viscerally. Although its narrative was minimal, it was, moment to moment, compelling to watch. And once seen it stuck in the mind,” said Miller of his decision.

Gebhardt was one of three directors (including Ariel Kleiman and Luke Doolan) initially chosen by Screen Australia and YouTube to create a short for the Map My Summer campaign – which asked the public to upload footage of how they spent their summer. She will now use that footage as the basis for a final film, set to be a tribute to what summer means in Australia.

“The invitation to build a film from the general public’s uploaded content is a creative challenge unlike anything I’ve ever encountered, and that excites me. The resulting film will be an intriguing collective expression of our relationship to summer and identity. I am hoping some really personal stories will emerge as well as some unique visual styles that will colour the end result with something memorable,” said Gebhardt.

“This initiative is quite an extraordinary way to develop content and to share with the world how we see ourselves. The opportunity to work with George Miller on this is a great honour, I have great respect for him as a filmmaker, so it will be interesting to see how our processes converge on such an unconventional filmic project,” she added.

Submissions to Map My Summer close on March 31 at youtube.com/mapmysummer.